Google’s driverless car might have airbags on the outside to protect pedestrians

While Google would contend that their driverless vehicles are more safe than a human controlling the wheel, the public likely won’t allow a car of its type to take to the road without some added safety precautions. One of those precautions could be the inclusion of external airbags in the event that the car unfortunately finds itself in an accident.

A patent filed by the company details a system where airbags would be deployed in the event of a crash or coming in contact with a pedestrian. While this wouldn’t eliminate the risk of damage or injury, it could lessen the sting a lot more than if it were a direct head-on collision.

Volvo has already tested vehicles with external airbags before, but this patent suggests Google could use some sort of memory foam-like foundation behind the airbags to lessen the chance that it sends a pedestrian flying to the pavement in the event of being hit.

Visualizing such an accident with a driverless car might bring up some brutal images in your head, but it’s worth remembering that Google’s driverless cars will drive at moderate speeds instead of pushing up against the speed limit every chance it gets. A crash might still do some damage, but we doubt it’d be going fast enough to completely crush you.

It’s worth noting that Google’s driverless cars have only been involved a couple of accidents to date. The first accident wasn’t its fault — it was rear-ended by a carelesss driver. The other accident happened in manual drive mode at the hands of one of the testers.

Couple that clean track record with the various sensors the car will have to come to a complete stop before inadvertently hitting a vehicle or person, and you’ll probably find you’re more safe inside or around one of Google’s cars than anything driven on the road by your average human being. Still, Google doesn’t want to take any chances so we’d be surprised if they don’t go ahead with this idea.

[via QZ]